Reincarnation and Karma
Their Significance in Modern Culture
GA 135
23 January 1912, Berlin
1. How can a direct conception be gained of the inner kernel of man's being which passes through many lives on earth?
People who have made some study of Anthroposophy, and particularly of the basic principles of reincarnation, karma and other truths connected with man and his evolution, may well ask: Why is it so difficult to gain a true, first-hand conception of that being in man which passes through repeated earth-lives—that being, which, if one could only acquire more intimate knowledge of it, would inevitably lead to an insight into the secrets of repeated earth-lives and even of karma? It is certainly true to say that as a rule man misinterprets everything connected with this question. At first he tries, as is only too natural, to explain it through his ordinary world of thought, through the ordinary intellect, and he asks himself: To what extent can we find, in the facts of life, proof that the conception of repeated earth-lives and karma is true? This endeavour, which is essentially of the nature of reflection, can, admittedly, lead man to a certain point, but no further. For our world of thought, as at present constituted, is entirely dependent on those qualities of our human organism which are limited to one incarnation; we possess them because, as men living between birth and death, we have been given this particular organism. And on this particular formation of the physical body, with the etheric body which is only one stage higher, everything that we can call our thought-world is dependent. The more penetrating these thoughts are, the better able they are to enter into abstract truths—so much the more are they dependent on the outer organism that is limited to one incarnation.
From this we may conclude that when we pass into the life between death and a new birth—that is to say, into the spiritual life—we can least of all take with us what we experience in our souls—our thoughts! And our most penetrating thoughts are what we have most of all to leave behind.
It may be asked: What is it that man more particularly discards when he passes through the Gate of Death? First of all, his physical body; and of all that constitutes his inner being he discards practically to the same extent all the abstract thoughts formulated in his soul. These two things—physical body, abstract thoughts, scientific thoughts as well—are what he can least of all take with him when he passes through the Gate of Death. It is in a certain sense easy for man to take with him his temperament, his impulses, his desires, as they have been formed in him, and especially his habits; he also takes with him the mode and nature of his impulses of will—but his thoughts least of all. Therefore, because our thoughts are so intimately bound up with the outer organism, we may conclude that they are instruments not very well adapted to penetrate the secrets of reincarnation and karma, which are truths extending beyond the single incarnation.
All the same, man can reach a certain point, and indeed he must develop his thinking up to a certain point, if he wishes to gain insight into the theory of reincarnation and karma. What can be said on this subject has practically all been said either in the pamphlet, Reincarnation and Karma from the standpoint of modern Natural Science, or in the chapter on reincarnation and karma in the book Theosophy. Scarcely anything can be added to what is said in these two publications. The question of what can be contributed by the intellect will not further concern us to-day, but rather the question of how man can acquire a certain conception of reincarnation and karma; that is to say, a conception of more value than a mere theoretical conviction, able to bring about a kind of inner certainty that the real soul-spiritual kernel of being within us comes over from earlier lives and passes on into later lives.
Such a definite conception can be acquired by means of certain inner exercises which are by no means easy; indeed they are difficult, but they can nevertheless be carried out. The first step is in some degree to practise the normal kind of self-cognition, which consists in looking back over one's life and asking oneself: What kind of person have I been? Have I been a person with a strong inclination for reflection, for inner contemplation; or am I one who has always had more love for the sensations of the outer world, liking or disliking this or that in everyday life? Was I a child who at school liked reading but not arithmetic, one who liked to hit other children but did not like being hit? Or was I a child always bound to be bullied and not smart enough to bully others?
It is well to look back on one's life in this way, and especially to ask oneself: Was I cut out for activities of the mind or of the will? What did I find easy or difficult? What happened to me that I would like to have avoided? What happenings made me say to myself: “I am glad this has come to pass ”—and so on.
It is good to look back on one's life in a certain way, and above all to envisage clearly those things that one did not like. All this leads to a more intimate knowledge of the inner kernel of our being. For example, a son who would have liked to become a poet was destined by his father to be a craftsman, and a craftsman he became, although he would sooner have been a poet. It is well to know clearly what we really wanted to be, and what we have become against our will, to visualise what would have suited us in the time of our youth but was not our lot, and then, again, what we would have liked to avoid.
All that I am saying refers, of course, to life in the past, not in the future—that would be a false conception. We must therefore be quite clear as to what such a retrospect into the past means; it tells us what we did not want, what we would have liked to avoid. When we have made that clear to ourselves, we really have a picture of those things in our life which have pleased us least. That is the essential point. And we must now try to live into a very remarkable conception: we must desire and will everything that we have not desired or willed. We must imagine to ourselves: What should I actually have become if I had ardently desired everything that in fact I did not wish for and which really went against the grain in life? In a certain sense we must here rule out what we have succeeded in overcoming, for the most important thing is that we should ardently wish or picture ourselves wishing for the things we have not desired, or concerning which we have not been able to carry out our wishes, so that we create for ourselves, in feeling and thought, a being hitherto unfamiliar to us. We must picture ourselves as this being with great intensity. If we can do this, if we can identify ourselves with the being we have ourselves built up in this way, we have made some real progress towards becoming acquainted with the inner soul-kernel of our being; for in the picture we have thus been able to make of our own personality there will arise something that we have not been in this present incarnation but which we have introduced into it. Our deeper being will emerge from the picture built up in this way.
You will see, therefore, that from those who wish to gain knowledge of this inner kernel of being, something is required for which people in our age have no inclination at all. They are not disposed to desire anything of the sort, for nowadays, if they reflect upon their own nature, they want to find themselves absolutely satisfied with it as it is. When we go back to earlier, more deeply religious epochs, we find there a feeling that man should feel himself overwhelmed because he so little resembled his Divine Archetype. This was not, of course, the idea of which we have spoken to-day, but it was an idea which led man away from what usually satisfies him, to something else, to that being which lives on beyond the organism existing between birth and death, even if it did not lead to the conviction of another incarnation. If you call up the counterpart of yourself, the following thought will dawn upon you. This counterpart—difficult as it may be to realise it as a picture of yourself in this life—is nevertheless connected with you, and you cannot disown it. Once it appears, it will follow you, hover before your soul and crystallise in such a way that you will realise that it has something to do with you, but certainly not with your present life. And then there develops the perception that this picture is derived from an earlier life.
If we bring this clearly before our souls, we shall soon realise how erroneous are most of the current conceptions of reincarnation and karma. You have no doubt often heard anthroposophists say when they meet a good arithmetician: “In his previous incarnation this man was a good arithmetician!” Unfortunately, many undeveloped anthroposophists string together links of reincarnation in such a way that it is thought possible to find the earlier incarnation because the present gifts must have existed in the preceding incarnation or in many previous incarnations. This is the worst possible form of speculation and anything derived from it is usually false. True observation by means of Spiritual Science, discloses, as a rule, the exact opposite. For example, people who in a former incarnation were good arithmeticians, good mathematicians, often reappear with no gift for mathematics at all. If we wish to discover what gifts we may probably have possessed in a former incarnation (here I must remind you that we are speaking of probabilities!)—if we wish to know what intellectual or artistic faculties, say, we possessed in a former incarnation, it is well to reflect upon those things for which we have least talent in the present life.
These are true indications, but they are very often interwoven with other facts. It may happen that a man had a special talent for mathematics in a former incarnation but died young, so that this talent never came to full expression; then he will be born again in his next incarnation with a talent for mathematics and this will represent a continuation of the previous incarnation. Abel, the mathematician who died young, will certainly in his next incarnation be reborn with a strong mathematical talent. [1The Norwegian Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829), of whom Hermite said: “He has left mathematicians something to keep them busy for five hundred years.” Two days after Abel's death in poverty, from tuberculosis, a letter came saying that he was to be appointed Professor of Mathematics in the University of Berlin. But when a mathematician has lived to a great age, so that his talent has spent itself—then in his next incarnation he will be stupid as regards mathematics. I knew a man who had so little gift for mathematics that as a schoolboy he simply hated figures, and although in other subjects he did well, he generally managed to get through his classes only because he obtained exceptionally good marks in other subjects. This was because in his former incarnation he had been an exceedingly good mathematician.
If we go more deeply into this, the fact becomes apparent that the external career of a man in one incarnation, when it is not merely a career but also an inner vocation, passes over in his next incarnation into the inward shaping of his bodily organs. Thus, if a man has been an exceptionally good mathematician in one incarnation, the mastery he has obtained over numbers and figures remains with him and goes into a special development of his sense-organs, for instance, of the eyes. People with very good sight have it as a result of the fact that in their former incarnation they thought in forms; they took this thinking in forms with them and during the life between death and rebirth they worked specially on the shaping of their eyes. Here the mathematical talent has passed into the eyes and no longer exists as a gift for mathematics.
Another case known to occultists is where an individuality in one incarnation lived with intensity in architectural forms; these experiences lived as forces in his inner soul-life and worked strongly upon the instrument of hearing, so that in his next incarnation he became a great musician. He did not appear as a great architect, because the perception of form necessary for architecture was transformed into an organ-building force, so that there was nothing left but a supreme sensitiveness for music.
An external consideration of similarities is generally deceptive in reference to the characteristics of successive incarnations; and just as we must reflect upon whatever did not please us and conceive of ourselves as having had an intense desire for it, so we must also reflect upon those things for which we have the least talent, and about which we are stupid. If we discover the dullest sides of our nature, they may very probably point to those fields in which we were most brilliant in our previous incarnation. Thus we see how easy it is in these matters to begin at the wrong end. A little reflection will show us that it is the soul-kernel of our being which works over from one incarnation to another; this can be illustrated by the fact that it is no easier for a man to learn a language even if in his preceding incarnation he lived in the country associated with this particular language; otherwise our school-boys would not find it so difficult to learn Greek and Latin, for many of them in former incarnations will have lived in the regions where these were the languages of ordinary intercourse.
You see, the outer capacities we acquire are so closely connected with earthly circumstances that we cannot speak of them reappearing in the same form in the next incarnation; they are transformed into forces and in that way pass over to a subsequent incarnation. For instance, people who have a special faculty for learning languages in one incarnation will not have this in the next; instead, they will have the faculty which enables them to form more unbiassed judgments than those who had less talent for languages; these latter will tend to form one-sided judgments.
These matters are connected with the mysteries of reincarnation, and when we penetrate them we obtain a clear and vivid idea of what truly belongs to the inner being of man and what must in a certain sense be accounted external. For instance, language to-day is no longer part of man's inner being. We may love a language for the sake of what it expresses, for the sake of its Folk-Spirit; but it is something which passes over in transformed forms of force from one incarnation to another.
If a man follows up these ideas, so that he says: “I will strongly desire and will to be what I have become against my will, and also that for which I have the least capacity”—he can know that the conceptions he thus obtains will build up the picture of his preceding incarnation. This picture will arise in great precision if he is earnest and serious about the things just described. He will observe that from the whole way in which the conceptions coalesce, he will either feel: “This picture is quite near to me”; or he will feel: “This picture is a long, long way off.”
If through the elaboration of these conceptions, such a picture of the previous incarnation arises before a man's soul, he will, as a rule, he able to estimate how faded the picture is. The following feeling will come as an experience: “I am standing here; but the picture before me could not be my father, my grandfather, or my great-grandfather.” If however the student allows the picture to work upon him, his feeling and perception will lead him to the opinion: “Others are standing between me and this picture.” Let us for a moment assume that the student has the following feeling. It becomes apparent to him that between him and the picture stand twelve persons; another may perhaps feel that between him and the picture stand seven persons; but in any event the feeling is there and is of the greatest significance. If, for instance, there are twelve persons between oneself and the picture, this number can be divided by three, and the result will be four, and this may represent the number of centuries that have elapsed since the last incarnation. Thus a man who felt that there were twelve people standing between him and the picture, would say: “My preceding incarnation took place four centuries ago.”—This is given merely as an example; it will only actually be so in a very few cases, but it conveys the idea. Most people will find that they can in this way rightly estimate when they were incarnated before. Only the preparatory steps, of course, are rather difficult.
Here we have touched upon matters which are as alien as they can possibly be from present-day consciousness, and it cannot be denied that if we spoke of these things to people unprepared for them, they would regard them as so much irresponsible fantasy. The anthroposophical world-picture is fated—more so than any of its predecessors—to oppose traditional, accepted ideas. For to a very great extent these are imbued with the crudest, the most desolate materialism; and those very world-pictures which appear to be most firmly established on a scientific basis have, in point of fact, grown out of the most devastating materialistic assumptions. And since Anthroposophy is condemned to be labelled as the outlook cultivated by the kind of person who wants to know about his previous incarnations, one can readily understand that people of the present day are very far from taking anthroposophical views seriously. They are as far remote from the inclination to desire and to will what they have never desired or willed, as their habits of thought are remote from spiritual truths. The question might here be asked: Why, then, does spiritual truth come into the world just now? Why does it not leave humanity time to develop, to mature?
The reason is that it is almost impossible to imagine a greater difference between two successive epochs than there will be between the present epoch and that into which humanity will have grown when the people now living are reborn in their next incarnation. The development of certain spiritual faculties does not depend upon man, but upon the whole purpose and meaning, the whole nature, of earth-evolution. Men of the present day could not be more remote than they are from any belief in reincarnation and karma. This does not apply to students of Anthroposophy, but they are still very few; neither does it apply to those who still adhere to certain old forms of religion; but it applies to those who are the bearers of external cultural life: it sets them far away from belief in reincarnation and karma. Now the fact that people of the present day are particularly disinclined to believe in reincarnation and karma is connected in a remarkable way with their pursuits and studies—that is, in so far as these concern their intellectual faculties—and this fact will produce the opposite effect in the future. In the next incarnation these people, whether their pursuits are spiritual or material, will have a strong predisposition to gain an impression of their previous incarnation. Quite irrespective of their pursuits in this age, they will be reborn with a strong predisposition, a strong yearning for their last incarnation, with a strong desire to experience and know something of it. We are standing at a turning-point in time; it will lead men from an incarnation in which they have no desire at all to know anything of reincarnation and karma, to one in which the most living feeling will be this: “The whole of the life I now lead has no foundation for me if I cannot know anything of my former incarnation.” And the very people who now inveigh most bitterly against reincarnation and karma will writhe under the torment of the next life because they cannot explain to themselves how their life has come to be what it is.
Anthroposophy is not here for the purpose of cultivating in man a retrospective longing for former lives, but in order that there should be understanding of what will arise in connection with collective humanity when the people who are alive to-day will be here again. People who are anthroposophists to-day will share with those who are not the desire to remember, but they will have understanding, and therefore an inner harmony in their soul-life. Those who reject Anthroposophy to-day will wish to know something of it in the next life; they will really feel something like an inner torment concerning their previous incarnation but they will understand nothing of what it is that most distresses and torments them; they will be perplexed and will lack inner harmony. In their next incarnation they will have to be told: “You will understand the cause of this torment only if you can conceive that you have actually willed it into existence.”—Naturally, nobody will desire this torment, but people who are materialists to-day will in their next incarnation begin to understand their inner demands and the advice of those who will be in a position to know and who may say to them: “Conceive to yourselves that you have willed into existence this life from which you would like to flee.” If they begin to follow this advice and reflect: “How can I have willed this life?” they will say to themselves: “Yes, I did perhaps live in an incarnation where I said that it was absurdity and nonsense to speak of a following incarnation, and that this life was complete in itself, sending no forces on into a later one. And because at that time I felt a future life to be unreal, to be nonsense, my life now is so empty and desolate. It was I who actually implanted within myself the thought that is now the force making my life so meaningless and barren.”
That will be a right thought. Karmically it will outlive materialism. The next incarnation will be full of meaning for those who have acquired the conviction that their life, as it now is, is not only complete in itself but contains causes for the next. Meaningless and desolate will be the life of those who, because they believe reincarnation to be nonsense, have themselves rendered their own lives barren and void.
So we see that the thoughts we cherish do not pass over into the next life in a somewhat intensified form, but arise there transformed into forces. In the spiritual world, thoughts such as we now form between birth and death have no significance except in so far as they are transformed. If, for instance, a man has a great thought, however great it may be, the thought as thought is gone when he passes through the gate of death, but the enthusiasm, the perception and the feeling called to life by the thought—these pass through the gate of death with him. Man does not even take with him the thoughts of Anthroposophy, but what he has experienced through them—even to the details, not the general fundamental feeling alone—that is taken with him. This in particular is the point to grasp: thoughts as such are of real significance for the physical plane, but when we are speaking of the activity of thoughts in the higher worlds we must at the same time speak of their transformation in conformity with those worlds. Thoughts which deny reincarnation are transformed in the next life into an inner unreality, an inner emptiness of life; this inner unreality and emptiness are experienced as torment, as disharmony.
With the aid of a simile we may obtain an idea of this by thinking of something we like very much, and are always glad to see in a certain place—for instance, a particular flower blooming in a certain spot. If the flower is cut by a ruthless hand, we experience a certain pain. So it is with the whole organism of man. What causes man to feel pain? When the etheric and astral elements of an organ are embedded in a particular position in the physical body, then if the organ is injured so that the etheric and astral bodies cannot permeate it properly, pain is the result. It is just like the ruthless cutting of a rose from its accustomed place in a garden. When an organ has been injured, the etheric and astral bodies do not find what they seek, and this is then felt as bodily pain. And so a man's own thoughts, working on into the future, will meet him in the future. If he sends over into the next incarnation no forces of faith or of knowledge, his thoughts will fail him, and when he seeks for them he will find nothing. This lack will be experienced as pain and torment.
These are matters which from one aspect make the karmic course of certain events clear to us. They must be made clear, for our aim is to penetrate still more deeply into the ways and means whereby a man can make yet further preparation for coming to know the real kernel of his being of spirit-and-soul.
Erster Vortrag
An die Bemerkungen, die wir über die geistigen Tatsachen und Wesenheiten der höheren Welten machen konnten und die durch unsere Generalversammlungszeit unterbrochen worden sind, wird sich nunmehr gut einiges anschließen lassen, das uns Aufklärung geben kann über gewisse Dinge, welche mit der gegenwärtigen Entwickelung des Menschen zusammenhängen. Während also die Betrachtungen, die wir im Herbst gepflogen haben, uns mehr in die Vorgänge gewissermaßen innerhalb der höheren Hierarchien führen sollten, wollen wir heute einiges betrachten, das uns wie so recht menschliche Angelegenheiten naheliegen kann.
Es wird sich gewiß der Mensch, welcher sich eine Weile mit Anthroposophie beschäftigt hat, und der namentlich die Grundanschauungen von Reinkarnation und Karma und der übrigen Wahrheiten der Menschheit und ihrer Entwickelung aufgenommen hat, leicht fragen: Warum kommt man denn gar so schwer zu einer unmittelbaren, wirklichen Anschauung jener Wesenheit im Menschen, die durch die wiederholten Erdenleben hindurchgeht, jener Wesenheit des Menschen also, welche, wenn man sie nur einigermaßen genauer und immer genauer kennenlernen würde, ganz selbstverständlich führen müßte auch zu einer Einsicht in die Geheimnisse der wiederholten Erdenleben und eben auch des Karma?
Nun muß allerdings gesagt werden: Alles, was gerade mit dieser Frage zusammenhängt, greift der Mensch gewöhnlich ganz verkehrt an. Zunächst sucht sich ja der Mensch, wie das nur allzu selbstverständlich ist, über diese Dinge auch aufzuklären durch die gewöhnliche Gedankenwelt, durch den gewöhnlichen Verstand, und er fragt sich: Inwiefern kann man aus den Tatsachen des Lebens heraus Anhaltspunkte gewinnen dafür, daß die Anschauung von den wiederholten Erdenleben und von dem Karma eine richtige ist?
Nun wird der Mensch zwar bis zu einem gewissen Punkte mit einem solchen Bestreben kommen können, das im wesentlichen auf Nachdenken fußt; aber er wird damit eben doch nur bis zu einem gewissen Punkte kommen können. Denn unsere Gedankenwelt ist eigentlich, so wie sie einmal beschaffen ist, ganz und gar abhängig von jenen Einrichtungen innerhalb unserer Gesamtorganisation als Menschen, die eigentlich bloß auf die eine Inkarnation beschränkt ist, die wir dadurch erhalten, daß wir eben so, wie wir als Menschen zwischen Geburt und Tod leben, diese bestimmte Organisation zugeteilt erhalten. Und von dieser Organisation, ja, geradezu von der besonderen Ausgestaltung des physischen Leibes und des ja nur um eine Stufe über den physischen Leib hinausragenden Ätherleibes, ist alles abhängig, was wir unsere Gedankenwelt nennen können. Und je scharfsinniger im Grunde genommen diese Gedanken sind, je mehr sie sich einlassen können auf abstrakte Wahrheiten, desto mehr sind diese Gedanken abhängig von der äußeren, nur auf eine Inkarnation beschränkten Organisation des Menschen. Wir können das schon daraus entnehmen, daß wir, was ja öfter gesagt worden ist, in das Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, also in das geistige Leben hinein, von alledem, was wir in der Seele erleben, am allerwenigsten unsere Gedanken mitnehmen können. Also das, was wir am allerscharfsinnigsten ausdenken, müssen wir am allermeisten zurücklassen. Man könnte förmlich sagen: Was legt denn der Mensch ab, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet? Nun, zunächst seinen physischen Leib. Aber von alledem, was nun innerlich ist, legt der Mensch fast ebenso umfänglich, restlos alles ab, was er an abstrakten Gedanken in seiner Seele ausgestaltet hat. Diese zwei Dinge, physischer Leib und abstrakte Gedanken, ja, geradezu wissenschaftliche Gedanken, kann der Mensch am allerwenigsten mitnehmen, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet. Der Mensch nimmt gewissermaßen leicht mit seine Neigungen, seine Triebe, Begierden, wie sie sich herangebildet haben, insbesondere seine Gewohnheiten, nimmt auch mit die Art und Natur seiner Willensimpulse, aber am allerwenigsten seine Gedanken.
Daraus schon, weil die Gedanken so sehr gebunden sind an die äußere Organisation, kann geschlossen werden, daß sie auch kein Werkzeug sind, das sehr geeignet ist, um einzudringen in die Geheimnisse von Reinkarnation und Karma, welche ja Wahrheiten sind, die über die einzelne Inkarnation hinausgehen. Aber bis zu einem gewissen Punkte kann man dennoch kommen, und bis zu einem gewissen Punkte muß man sogar das Denken ausbilden, wenn man theoretisch Reinkarnation und Karma einsehen will. Was darüber gesagt werden kann, das ist im Grunde genommen alles gesagt entweder in dem Kapitel über Reinkarnation und Karma in der «Theosophie» oder in der kleinen Schrift «Reinkarnation und Karma, vom Standpunkte der modernen Naturwissenschaft notwendige Vorstellungen». Man wird kaum viel hinzufügen können zu dem, was in diesen beiden Schriften gesagt ist.
Was der Intellekt hinzufügen kann, diese Frage soll uns heute nicht weiter beschäftigen, sondern vielmehr die Frage: Wie kann nun der Mensch zu einer gewissen Anschauung von Reinkarnation und Karma doch kommen, das heißt zu einer Anschauung, die mehr wert ist als eine bloße theoretische Überzeugung, die eine Art innerer Gewißheit geben kann, daß der eigentliche geistig-seelische Wesenskern in uns von früheren Leben herüberkommt und zu späteren Leben hinübergeht?
Man kommt zu einer solchen bestimmten Anschauung dadurch, daß man innerliche Dinge ausführt, welche keineswegs leicht sind, welche schwierig sind, aber die deshalb doch immerhin ausgeführt werden können. Der erste Schritt, den man da machen kann, ist, daß man die gewöhnliche Art von Selbsterkenntnis ein wenig übt, die Art, die darin bestehen kann, daß der Mensch gewissermaßen auf sein Leben zurückblickt, so zurückblickt, daß er sich fragt: Was bin ich denn überhaupt für ein Mensch gewesen? Bin ich ein Mensch gewesen mit einer starken Neigung zum Nachdenken, zu einem innerlich nachsinnenden Wesen, oder bin ich ein Mensch gewesen, der stets mehr die Sensationen der Außenwelt geliebt hat, dem dieses oder jenes im Leben gefallen oder nicht gefallen hat? Bin ich ein Mensch gewesen, der in der Schule gern lesen, aber nicht gern rechnen wollte, der die anderen Kinder gern geschlagen hat, aber sich nicht gern hat schlagen lassen? Oder bin ich vielleicht ein Kind gewesen, das immer dazu bestimmt war, eins abzukriegen, und das nicht schlau genug gewesen ist, die anderen eins abkriegen zu lassen? — In dieser Weise ein wenig zurückzublicken auf sein Leben und insbesondere sich zu fragen: Wozu war ich - in intellektueller Weise oder in derjenigen Weise, die auf die Gemütsstimmungen oder auf die Willensimpulse bezüglich ist — besonders veranlagt? Was ist mir leicht, was ist mir schwierig geworden? Was hat mich so getroffen, daß ich ihm gern habe entfliehen wollen? Was hat mich so getroffen, daß ich mir gesagt habe: Es ist mir recht, daß es so gekommen ist und so weiter —, so also auf sein Leben in einer gewissen Weise zurückzublicken, das ist gut zu einer intimeren Erkenntnis seines geistig-seelischen Wesenskernes; vor allem alles das klar vor die Seele zu stellen, was zu dem gehört, was man eigentlich nicht gern gewollt hat. So zum Beispiel, ob man ein Sohn gewesen ist, der vielleicht gern ein Dichter geworden wäre, der von seinem Vater aber zum Handwerker bestimmt worden ist und auch ein Handwerker hat werden müssen, trotzdem er es nie so recht hat werden wollen; er ist es geworden, wäre aber lieber ein Dichter geworden. So sich klarmachen, was man eigentlich hat werden wollen, was man aber gegen seinen Willen geworden ist, dann sich klarmachen, was einem gepaßt hat im Jugendleben und was einem nie zuteil geworden ist. Dann weiter sich klarmachen, woraus man so recht hätte herauskommen wollen, welchem man so recht hätte entfliehen wollen. Ich bemerke, daß dies, was ich jetzt sage, sich auf das Leben in der Vergangenheit beziehen soll, nicht auf die Zukunft; das wäre eine falsche Vorstellung.
Also man soll sich im Grunde genommen klarmachen, was einem ein solcher Rückblick in die Vergangenheit sagt: was man nicht hat wollen, welchem man hat entfliehen wollen und so weiter. Wenn man sich das klargemacht hat, dann hat man eigentlich ein Bild derjenigen Dinge in seinem Leben, die einem so recht am wenigsten gefallen. Darum handelt es sich aber gerade, daß man die Dinge in seinem Leben herausbekommt, die einem in der Vergangenheit am wenigsten gefallen haben. Und man muß nun versuchen, sich ganz einzuleben in eine höchst merkwürdige Vorstellung: Alles das, was man nun eigentlich nicht gewollt und gewünscht hat, energisch zu wollen und zu wünschen! Also energisch einmal sich vor die Seele stellen: Wie wärest du eigentlich, wenn du lebendig, heftig alles das gewünscht hättest, was du eigentlich nicht gewünscht hast, was dir im Grunde genommen im Leben gegen den Strich gegangen ist? — Ausschalten muß man dabei in einer gewissen Weise dasjenige, was einem zu überwinden gelungen ist. Denn das allerwichtigste ist, daß man diejenigen Dinge wünscht, oder sich so vorstellt, als ob man sie lebhaft wünschen würde, die man nicht gewünscht hat, oder denen gegenüber man seine Wünsche nicht hat durchsetzen können, so daß man sich in der Empfindung, in Gedanken ein Wesen schafft, von dem man die Vorstellung haben kann, daß man es im Grunde genommen bisher gar nicht gewesen ist. Und jetzt stelle man sich vor, daß man eigentlich gerade dieses Wesen mit aller Vehemenz, mit aller Intensität gewesen wäre. Wenn man sich das vorstellt, wenn es einem gelingt, sich zu identifizieren mit diesem Wesen, das man auf diese Weise sich selber sozusagen einkonstruiert hat, dann hat man schon wesentlich etwas gewonnen auf dem Wege, seinen inneren seelischen Wesenskern kennenzulernen. Denn es wird einem gerade an dem Bilde, das man sich nun von seiner Eigenpersönlichkeit in der geschilderten Weise machen kann, etwas aufgehen, was man in der gegenwärtigen Inkarnation nicht ist, was man aber hereingebracht hat in die gegenwärtige Inkarnation. Sein tieferes Wesen wird einem aufgehen an dem Bilde, das man sich auf diese Weise konstruiert.
Es wird also von dem, der zu seinem inneren Wesenskern kommen will, im Grunde genommen etwas verlangt, was die Menschen in unserer Gegenwart am allerwenigsten tun. Unsere Gegenwart ist gar nicht dazu veranlagt, auch nur in einer gewissen Weise so etwas herbeizusehnen, was dem ähnlich ist, was jetzt gefordert worden ist; denn in unserer Gegenwart streben eigentlich die Menschen, wenn sie über sich selber nachdenken, am allermeisten danach, sich so, wie sie sind, absolut richtig zu finden. Wenn wir zurückgehen in frühere Zeiten einer noch religiöseren Entwickelung, dann finden wir das Gefühl, daß der Mensch sich zerknirscht empfinden soll, da er so wenig dem entspricht, was er als sein göttliches Vorbild bezeichnen kann. Das war zwar nicht die Vorstellung, von der heute gesprochen worden ist, aber es war die Vorstellung, welche von dem, womit der Mensch gewöhnlich zufrieden ist, abführte und zu etwas anderem hinführte — wenn auch nicht zu der Überzeugung von einer anderen Inkarnation -, nämlich zu jenem Wesen hinführte, das über unsere Organisation, wie sie sich zwischen Geburt und Tod herausbildet, hinüberlebt. Es wird einem folgendes aufgehen, wenn man das Gegenbild von dem zeichnet, was man ist: Dieses Gegenbild, so schwer es dir geworden ist, es in diesem Leben als dein Bild zu fassen, es hat doch etwas mit dir zu tun; das kannst du nicht leugnen. Wenn du es hast, wird es dich verfolgen, wird es dir vor der Seele schweben und sich so zusammenkristallisieren, daß du dir sagen wirst: Dieses Bild hat etwas mit mir zu tun, aber ganz gewiß nicht mit meinem jetzigen Leben. — Dann bildet sich die Empfindung heraus, daß dieses Bild gerade aus einem früheren Leben stammt.
Wenn wir dies uns vor die Seele führen, werden wir bald gewahr werden, wie irrtümlich die meisten Vorstellungen sind, die man sich gewöhnlich über Reinkarnation und Karma bildet. Sie werden es selbst schon gehört haben: wenn einem irgendwo ein Mensch im Leben entgegentritt, der zum Beispiel ein guter Rechner ist, und wenn man dann zugleich Anthroposoph ist, dann wird man sich leicht die Vorstellung bilden: In der vorhergehenden Inkarnation ist dieser Mensch ein guter Rechner gewesen. Viele Reinkarnationsketten werden leider von unausgebildeten Anthroposophen in der Weise aufgestellt, daß man einfach glaubt, die vorhergehende Inkarnation dadurch zu finden, daß man die Fähigkeiten, die in der gegenwärtigen auftreten, auch in der vorhergehenden oder womöglich in mehreren vorhergehenden Inkarnationen wird finden müssen. Das ist die schlechteste Art, zu spekulieren. Man trifft gewöhnlich damit das Falsche. Denn die wirklichen Beobachtungen mit den Mitteln der Geisteswissenschaft zeigen zumeist das genaue Gegenteil. Leute zum Beispiel, die in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation gute Rechner, gute Mathematiker waren, treten in der gegenwärtigen Inkarnation so auf, daß sie gar keine Begabung für Mathematik zeigen, daß ihnen die mathematische Begabung fehlt. Und will man wissen, welche Begabungen man höchstwahrscheinlich in der vorigen Inkarnation hatte — ich mache darauf aufmerksam, daß wir jetzt also auf dem Boden der Wahrscheinlichkeit stehen -, will man wissen, welche Fähigkeiten in dieser Richtung an Intelligenz, künstlerischen Dingen und so weiter man in der vorigen Inkarnation gehabt hat, so tut man gut, wenn man nachdenkt, wozu man in dieser Inkarnation am allerwenigsten Fähigkeiten hat, wozu man in dieser Inkarnation sich am allerwenigsten eignet. Wenn man das herausbekommen hat, dann wird man finden, worin man wahrscheinlich in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation brilliert hat, wofür man ganz besonders begabt war. Ich sage «wahrscheinlich» aus dem Grunde, weil diese Dinge auf der einen Seite wahr sind, aber auf der anderen Seite vielfach durchkreuzt werden von anderen Tatsachen. Da kann zum Beispiel der Fall eintreten, daß einer eine besondere mathematische Begabung in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation hatte, aber früh gestorben ist, so daß diese mathematische Begabung nicht ganz zum Ausdruck gekommen ist; dann wird er in seiner nächsten Inkarnation wieder mit einer mathematischen Begabung geboren werden, die sich dann wie eine Fortsetzung aus der vorhergehenden Inkarnation darstellen wird. Der früh verstorbene Mathematiker Abel wird ganz gewiß in seiner nächsten Inkarnation mit einer starken mathematischen Begabung wiedergeboren werden. Wo dagegen ein Rechner besonders alt geworden ist, wo sich diese Begabung ausgelebt hat, da wird der Betreffende in seiner nächsten Inkarnation geradezu stumpfsinnig sein in bezug auf Mathematik. So ist mir eine Persönlichkeit bekannt, die so wenig mathematische Begabung hatte, daß sie als Schulbube geradezu die Ziffern haßte; und während der Betreffende in den anderen Fächern gute Zensuren hatte, war es überhaupt nur dadurch möglich, daß er die Schulklassen durchmachen konnte, daß man ihm in den anderen Fächern besonders gute Zensuren ausstellte. Das rührte davon her, daß er in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation ein besonders guter Mathematiker gewesen ist. |
Wenn man weiter darauf eingeht, dann stellt sich die Tatsache heraus, daß das, was man in einer Inkarnation äußerlich treibt, das heißt, was man nicht allein äußerlich treibt, sondern was man für einen äußerlichen oder innerlichen Beruf hat, in der nächsten Inkarnation in die innere Organbildung eingeht, zum Beispiel in der Weise, daß man, wenn man in einer Inkarnation ein besonders guter Mathematiker war, dasjenige, was man sich da angeeignet hat an Zahlen- und Figurenbeherrschung, mitgenommen und hineingearbeitet hat in eine besondere Ausarbeitung seiner Sinnesorgane, zum Beispiel der Augen. Und Menschen, die sehr gut sehen, haben diese sorgfältige Ausbildung der Formen des Auges davon, daß sie in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation in Formen gedacht und dieses Denken in Formen mitgenommen haben und, indem sie durch die Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt geschritten sind, ihre Augen besonders ausziseliert haben. Da ist die mathematische Begabung ins Auge hineingeflossen und lebt sich nicht mehr in mathematischer Begabung aus.
Ein anderer den Okkultisten bekannter Fall ist der, wo eine Individualität in einer Inkarnation besonders intensiv in Architekturformen lebte: was sie da empfunden hat, das lebte sich ein als Kräfte in das innere Seelenleben und ziselierte besonders fein aus das Gehörwerkzeug, so daß diese Individualität in der nächsten Inkarnation ein großer Musiker wurde. Sie wurde nicht ein großer Architekt, weil die Empfindungsformen, die sich an die Architektur anlehnten, organaufbauend wurden, so daß nichts übrigblieb, als in hohem Maße Musik zu empfinden.
Eine äußere Betrachtung der Ähnlichkeiten täuscht in der Regel über das, was Eigentümlichkeiten in den aufeinanderfolgenden Inkarnationen sind. Und wie wir nachdenken müssen über das, was uns nicht gefallen hat und uns vorstellen müssen, als ob wir es intensiv wünschten, so sollen wir auch nachdenken über die Dinge, zu denen wir am wenigsten befähigt sind, in denen wir sozusagen ganz stumpfsinnig sind. Und wenn wir die allerstumpfsinnigsten Seiten unseres Wesens entdecken, dann können sie uns mit größter Wahrscheinlichkeit zu dem führen, worin wir in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation am allermeisten geglänzt haben. Daraus sehen wir, daß es naheliegt, gerade diese Dinge am falschen Ende anzufangen. Wie uns im übrigen auch ein gewisses Nachdenken darüber belehren kann, daß es eben der innerste seelische Wesenskern ist, der von einer Inkarnation in die andere hinüberlebt, das zeigt zum Beispiel die Erwägung, daß der Mensch Sprachen doch niemals dadurch leichter lernt, daß er in einer vorhergehenden Inkarnation etwa in einem Sprachgebiete gelebt hat, das mit der betreffenden Sprache, die er jetzt lernen soll, zusammenhing; denn sonst würden es unsere Gymnasiasten nicht gar so schwer haben, Griechisch oder Lateinisch zu lernen, obwohl viele in ihren früheren Inkarnationen in einem Gebiete gelebt haben, wo sie diese Sprachen als die gewöhnlichen Umgangssprachen gesprochen haben.
Von dem, was wir äußerlich an uns heranbringen, müssen wir sagen, daß es so sehr verbunden ist mit dem, was sich abschließt in dem Leben des Menschen zwischen Geburt und Tod, daß gar nicht davon die Rede sein kann, daß diese Dinge in der nächsten Inkarnation in derselben Weise wiedererscheinen, sondern daß sie in Kräfte umgewandelt in die nächste oder nächsten Inkarnationen übergehen. Diejenigen Menschen, die zum Beispiel in einer Inkarnation eine besondere Anlage haben zum Sprachen erlernen, werden diese Anlage in ihrer nächsten Inkarnation nicht haben; dafür aber werden sie die Anlage haben, zu mehr unbefangenem Urteilen als die übrigen Menschen. |
Das sind Dinge, die mit den Geheimnissen der Reinkarnation zusammenhängen. Und gerade wenn man auf diese Geheimnisse der Reinkarnation blickt, wird man in der intensivsten Weise eine Vorstellung bekommen von dem, was eigentlich wirklich im Menschen innerlich ist, und was in einer gewissen Weise doch zu den Äußerlichkeiten gerechnet werden muß. Zum Beispiel ist für den gegenwärtigen Menschen die Sprache durchaus nicht mehr innerlich. Man kann die Sprache um dessentwillen, was sie ausdrückt, um des Volksgeistes willen lieben; aber sie ist etwas, was in umgewandelten Kräfteformen von einer Inkarnation in die andere übergeht.
Wenn der Mensch solche Dinge verfolgt, daß er auf der einen Seite sagt: Ich will einmal recht sehr wünschen und wollen, was ich doch gegen meinen Willen geworden bin und wofür ich am wenigsten Veranlagung habe — dann kann er wissen: Es werden sich mir die Vorstellungen, die ich da gewinne, zusammenformen zu dem Bilde meiner vorhergehenden Inkarnation. — Dieses Bild der vorhergehenden Inkarnation wird sich mit einer großen Bestimmtheit schon ergeben, wenn man Ernst macht mit denjenigen Dingen, die jetzt einmal etwas genauer charakterisiert worden sind. Man wird nämlich tatsächlich merken, daß man an der ganzen Art und Weise, wie sich einem die Vorstellungen, die man so gewonnen hat, zusammenfügen, empfinden wird: Dieses Bild ist mir eigentlich ziemlich nahe; es ist gar nicht weit von mir. Oder man wird fühlen: Es ist ein Bild weit, weit weg von mir, Wenn man nämlich durch die Ausarbeitung der Vorstellungen, die heute geschildert worden sind, ein solches Bild seiner vorhergehenden Inkarnation sich vor die Seele gemalt hat, dann wird man in der Regel abschätzen können, wie stark verblaßt dieses Bild ist. Man wird das Gefühl haben wie aus einer Empfindung heraus: Du stehst hier; dein Vater, dein Großvater, dein Urgroßvater können nicht das Bild sein, das da vor dir steht. - Wenn man aber das Bild auf sich wirken läßt, dann bekommt man in der Tat durch Gefühl und Empfindung die Meinung: So und so viele Personen stehen zwischen dir und diesem Bilde! - Nehmen wir einmal an, man bekommt dieses Gefühl — und ein solches stellt sich heraus —, zwischen einem selbst und diesem Bilde stünden zwölf Personen, und ein anderer bekäme das Gefühl, zwischen ibm selbst und dem Bilde stünden sieben Personen. Ein solches Gefühl aber bekommt man, und dieses Gefühl ist außerordentlich wichtig. Denn wenn zum Beispiel zwölf Personen zwischen einem selbst und diesem Bilde stehen, so braucht man nur durch drei zu dividieren und würde dann vier herausbekommen. Das sind dann in der Regel die Jahrhunderte, die einen von der vorhergehenden Inkarnation trennen. Also ein Mensch, der das Gefühl haben würde, daß er von dem Bilde, das ich seiner Entstehung nach geschildert habe, um zwölf Menschen entfernt ist, daß es um zwölf Personen über ihm ist, er müßte sich sagen: Meine vorhergehende Inkarnation fällt vier Jahrhunderte vor die jetzige. — Das ist nur als ein Beispiel angeführt; es wird in den wenigsten Fällen so sein, aber man kommt dadurch zu einer Schätzung. Die meisten werden finden, daß sie auf diese Weise richtig abschätzen können, wann sie vorher dagewesen sind. Nur sind die Voraussetzungen dazu natürlich etwas schwierig.
Damit haben wir eigentlich Dinge berührt, welche dem Gegenwartsbewußtsein ja so ferne wie möglich liegen. Und es ist ganz und gar nicht zu bezweifeln, daß, wenn irgend jemand diese Dinge Leuten erzählte, die dafür unvorbereitet sind, sie dann finden werden, daß das ja wirklich unverantwortliche Phantastereien sind. Nun ist es schon einmal das Schicksal der anthroposophischen Weltanschauung, daß sie von allen bisherigen Weltanschauungen am allerallermeisten in einer gewissen Weise sich entgegenstellen muß dem, was das Hergebrachte ist. Denn das Hergebrachte ist im weitesten Umfange, wie es einem entgegentritt, der krasseste, der ödeste Materialismus. Und gerade da, wo uns gewisse Weltanschauungen so entgegentreten, als ob sie am allerfestesten auf dem Boden wissenschaftlicher Weltanschauung ständen, da sind sie tatsächlich so, daß sie am ödesten aus einer gewissen materialistischen Grundanschauung herauswachsen. Da nun die Anthroposophie dazu verurteilt ist, in einer gewissen Weise selber für die große Welt der Weltanschauungen das zu sein, was heute verlangt worden ist für den Menschen, der eine Vorstellung bekommen soll von seiner vorhergehenden Inkarnation, so kann es begreiflich erscheinen, daß es dem gegenwärtigen Menschen sehr ferne liegen muß, anthroposophische Anschauungen ernst zu nehmen. Denn die Menschen werden ebenso abgeneigt sein, zu wünschen und zu wollen, was sie ihr Leben lang nicht gewünscht und gewollt haben, wie ihren Denkgewohnheiten ferne liegen die spirituellen Wahrheiten.
Nun könnte man die Frage aufwerfen: Warum tritt denn gerade jetzt die spirituelle Wahrheit unter die Menschen? Warum läßt sie nicht den Menschen Zeit, sich zu entwickeln, bis sie reifer sind?
Das rührt davon her, daß auch wieder kaum ein größerer Unterschied gedacht werden kann zwischen zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Menschheitsepochen, als er sein wird zwischen der Epoche, in der die gegenwärtige Menschheit lebt, und derjenigen, in welche die Menschheit hineinwachsen wird, wenn die jetzt lebenden Menschen wiedergeboren sein werden in der nächsten Inkarnation. Denn es hängt nicht von den Menschen ab, wie sich gewisse geistige Fähigkeiten herausbilden; das hängt ab von dem ganzen Sinn und der ganzen Bedeutung und dem ganzen Wesen der Erdentwickelung. Die Menschen sind jetzt nämlich am weitesten davon entfernt, an Reinkarnation und Karma zu glauben. Nicht die Anthroposophen — aber Anthroposophen sind ja nur wenige in der Welt —, nicht die, welche noch alten Religionsformen angehören, sondern die, welche heute die Träger des äußeren Kulturlebens sind, die sind heute am allermeisten davon entfernt, an Reinkarnation und Karma zu glauben. Nun wird merkwürdigerweise gerade diese Tatsache, daß die Menschen heute am allerwenigsten geneigt sind, an Reinkarnation und Karma zu glauben, verbunden mit dem, was die Menschen heute treiben und lernen, nämlich treiben und lernen, insofern dies in bezug auf intellektuelle Fähigkeiten eine Bedeutung hat — diese Tatsachen werden bewirken, daß bei diesen Menschen der Gegenwart in der nächsten Inkarnation das Gegenteil eintreten wird. Diese Menschen der Gegenwart werden in der nächsten Inkarnation — gleichgültig, ob sie spirituell oder materialistisch streben - starke Anlage haben, ihre vorhergehende Inkarnation zu empfinden. Ganz gleichgültig, was die Menschen der Gegenwart treiben: dadurch, daß sie Menschen der Jetztzeit sind, werden sie wiedergeboren werden mit einer starken Anlage und einer starken Sehnsucht, von der vorhergehenden Inkarnation etwas zu erfahren, etwas zu wissen. Wir stehen gerade an einer solchen Zeitenwende, welche die Menschen führt von einer solchen Inkarnation, in der sie am allerwenigsten wissen wollen von Reinkarnation und Karma, zu einer Inkarnation, in der in ihnen die lebendigste Empfindung sein wird: Das ganze Leben, das ich jetzt führe, steht für mich in der Luft, wenn ich nicht irgend etwas wissen kann über meine vorhergehende Inkarnation. — Und die Menschen, welche jetzt am allermeisten schimpfen über Reinkarnation und Karma, sie werden sich geradezu winden unter der Qual des nächsten Lebens, weil sie sich nicht erklären können, wie das Leben so hat werden können. Nicht um sich eine gewisse Rücksehnsucht nach dem vorhergehenden Leben anzueignen, wird jetzt Anthroposophie getrieben von den Menschen, sondern um Verständnis zu haben für das, was für die gesamte Menschheit einmal auftreten wird, wenn die Menschen, die heute leben, wieder da sein werden. Die Menschen, die heute Anthroposophen sind, werden die Anlage mit den anderen teilen, daß sie sich wieder erinnern wollen; aber sie werden Verständnis haben und dadurch innere Harmonie in bezug auf ihr Seelenleben. Die, welche heute die Anthroposophie zurückweisen, sie werden davon wissen wollen, und sie werden so etwas empfinden wie eine innere Qual nach etwas, was eben ihre vorhergehende Inkarnation wäre im nächsten Leben; sie werden aber nichts verstehen von dem, was sie am allermeisten drückt und quält; sie werden ratlos sein, werden innerlich disharmonisch sein. Und es wird ihnen gesagt werden müssen in der nächsten Inkarnation: Du lernst erst erkennen, was dir Qualen verursacht, wenn du dir vorstellst, daß du eigentlich im Ernste diese Qual gewollt haben könntest. — Natürlich werden alle Menschen diese Qual nicht wollen. Aber die Menschen, die heute Materialisten sind, werden dann in der nächsten Inkarnation anfangen, ihre innere Zerknirschtheit, ihre innere Ode und Qual zu begreifen, wenn sie befolgen werden die Anforderungen, den Rat derer, die dann werden wissen können und ihnen sagen: Stellt euch einmal vor, dieses Leben, wie ihr es fliehen möchtet, das hättet ihr gewollt. — Wenn sie anfangen werden, diesen Rat zu befolgen, nachzudenken darüber: Wodurch kann ich dieses Leben gewollt haben? — dann werden sie sich sagen: Ach ja, da habe ich vielleicht gelebt in einer Inkarnation, in welcher ich gesagt habe: Was, ein anderes, nächstes Leben oder Inkarnation soll auf dieses Leben folgen? Unsinn! Dummheit! Wie kann man so etwas glauben! Dieses Leben erfüllt sich in sich selber, ist in sich abgeschlossen; das sendet keine Kräfte in ein späteres hinüber! Ja, weil ich dazumal die Empfindung gehabt habe, ein folgendes Leben ist nichtig, ist unsinnig, dadurch ist es nichtig und unsinnig geworden! Ich habe gerade den Gedanken in mich hineingepflanzt als Kraft, der mir jetzt das Leben so öde und leer macht!
Das wird ein richtiger Gedanke sein. So wird sich sozusagen karmisch der Materialismus ausleben. Sinnvoll wird die nächste Inkarnation bei denjenigen Menschen sein, welche sich die Überzeugung verschafft haben, daß ihr Leben, wie es jetzt ist, eben nicht nur in sich erfüllt ist, sondern Ursachen enthält für das nächste. Unsinnig, leer und öde wird das Leben derer sein, die durch den Gedanken der Unsinnigkeit der Reinkarnation sich selber das Leben öde und nichtig gemacht haben.
So sehen wir, daß die Gedanken, die wir hegen, nicht etwa in einer gesteigerten Form in das nächste Leben hinübergehen, sondern umgewandelt als Kräfte im nächsten Leben auftreten. In der geistigen Welt haben eben Gedanken, so wie sie jetzt sind im Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod, keine Bedeutung, sondern sie haben nur eine Bedeutung in einer umgewandelten Form. Wenn jemand zum Beispiel einen großen Gedanken hat, so kann dieser Gedanke noch so groß sein: wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, ist der Gedanke als Gedanke fort. Aber der Enthusiasmus und die Empfindung und das Gefühl, das aufgelebt hat unter dem Einfluß des Gedankens, das geht durch die Pforte des Todes. Von der Anthroposophie selber nimmt der Mensch nicht die Gedanken mit, wohl aber das, was er an den Gedanken erlebt hat - bis in die Einzelheiten, nicht nur die allgemeine Grundempfindung. Das ist das, was wir insbesondere festhalten wollen: daß Gedanken als solche für den physischen Plan das eigentlich Bedeutungsvolle sind, und daß wir, wenn wir von der Wirkung des Gedankens für die höheren Welten sprechen, zugleich sprechen müssen von einer Umwandlung dieser Gedanken nach den höheren Welten hinauf. Gedanken, welche also eine Wiederverkörperung leugnen, wandein sich um in dem wiederverkörperten Leben in innere Nichtigkeit, in innere Leerheit des Lebens, und innere Nichtigkeit, innere Leerheit des Lebens wird als Qual, als Disharmonie empfunden. — Sie können sogar durch einen Vergleich eine Vorstellung bekommen, wie eine solche innere Nichtigkeit und Leerheit verlaufen muß, wenn Sie sich denken, daß Sie etwas recht gerne haben und es immer dann gern sehen, wenn Sie an einen bestimmten Ort kommen. Sie haben sich zum Beispiel gewöhnt, eine bestimmte Blume in einem Garten an einem bestimmten Ort blühen zu sehen. Wenn dann die Blume von ruchloser Hand abgeschnitten wird, werden Sie Schmerz empfinden. Wenn Sie etwas, was Sie lieben, nicht haben, wenn Ihnen das fehlt, dann empfinden Sie Schmerz. So ist es mit der Gesamtorganisation des Menschen. Wodurch empfindet der Mensch Schmerz? Wenn der Ätherleib und der Astralleib eines Organs immer an eine bestimmte Stelle des physischen Leibes eingeschaltet sind, und wenn dieses Organ einen Schnitt bekommt und verletzt wird, so können der Ätherleib und der Astralleib nicht gut eingreifen. Es ist das gerade so, wie wenn Ihnen durch den Schnitt von ruchloser Hand die Rose im Garten an der bestimmten Stelle abgeschnitten wird. Der Atherleib und der Astralleib finden dann nicht, wenn ein Organ verletzt wird, was sie suchen; das wird dann als leiblicher Schmerz empfunden. So werden also die Gedanken, die sich der Mensch gemacht hat als fortwirkend in die Zukunft, ihm in der Zukunft entgegentreten. Dagegen werden sie ihm fehlen, und er wird nichts finden, wo er sie suchen wird an einem bestimmten Ort, wenn er nichts hinübersendet von Glauben und Erkenntniskräften in die nächste Inkarnation, und dann wird er dieses Fehlen von etwas an einem Orte als Schmerz und Qual empfinden.
Dies sind Angaben, die uns von einer gewissen Seite den karmischen Verlauf gewisser Dinge klarlegen werden. Sie mußten gemacht werden, weil wir noch tiefer hineinsehen wollen in die Art und Weise, wie der Mensch noch weiter Veranstaltungen machen kann, um seinen eigentlichen geistig-seelischen Wesenskern zu erkennen.
First Lecture
The remarks we were able to make about the spiritual facts and beings of the higher worlds, which were interrupted by our general meeting, can now be followed by a number of points that can shed light on certain things connected with the present development of the human being. While the reflections we engaged in last fall were intended to lead us more into the processes within the higher hierarchies, so to speak, today we want to consider some things that may seem very close to us as human affairs.
Those who have studied anthroposophy for a while, and who have taken up the basic ideas of reincarnation and karma and the other truths about humanity and its development, will certainly ask themselves: Why is it so difficult to gain a direct, real insight into that entity within the human being which passes through repeated earthly lives, that entity of the human being which, if we could only get to know it a little more precisely and more and more precisely, would quite naturally lead us to an understanding of the mysteries of repeated earthly lives and also of karma.
Now, it must be said that everything connected with this question is usually approached in a completely wrong way. First of all, human beings naturally seek to explain these things through their ordinary thinking, through their ordinary intellect, and they ask themselves: How can we find evidence in the facts of life that the view of repeated earthly lives and karma is correct.
Now, to a certain extent, people can achieve this through reflection, but they can only go so far. For our world of thoughts, as it is constituted, is actually entirely dependent on those structures within our overall organization as human beings, which are actually limited to the one incarnation we receive by being assigned this particular organization in the way we live as human beings between birth and death. And everything we can call our world of thoughts is dependent on this organization, indeed, on the particular configuration of the physical body and the etheric body, which is only one step above the physical body. And the more astute these thoughts are, the more they can engage with abstract truths, the more these thoughts are dependent on the external organization of the human being, which is limited to one incarnation. We can already see this from the fact that, as has often been said, when we enter the life between death and a new birth, that is, into the spiritual life, we can take with us from all that we experience in the soul, least of all our thoughts. So what we think out most astutely is what we have to leave behind most of all. One could literally say: What does the human being lay down when he passes through the gate of death? Well, first of all, his physical body. But of all that is now within him, man lays down almost as completely, completely everything that he has formed in his soul in the way of abstract thoughts. These two things, the physical body and abstract thoughts, indeed, scientific thoughts, are the very least that man can take with him when he passes through the gate of death. Human beings take with them, in a sense, their inclinations, their instincts, their desires as they have developed, especially their habits, and they also take with them the nature and character of their impulses of will, but least of all their thoughts.
From this alone, because thoughts are so closely bound to the external organization, it can be concluded that they are not a very suitable tool for penetrating the mysteries of reincarnation and karma, which are truths that go beyond the individual incarnation. But to a certain point one can nevertheless arrive, and to a certain point one must even train one's thinking if one wants to understand reincarnation and karma theoretically. What can be said about this has basically all been said either in the chapter on reincarnation and karma in Theosophy or in the small pamphlet Reincarnation and Karma: Necessary Concepts from the Standpoint of Modern Natural Science. There is little to add to what is said in these two writings.
What the intellect can add is not the question that concerns us today, but rather the question: How can human beings arrive at a certain view of reincarnation and karma, that is, a view that is worth more than a mere theoretical conviction, a view that can give a kind of inner certainty that the actual spiritual-soul core of our being comes over from previous lives and passes on to later lives.
One arrives at such a definite view by carrying out inner work that is by no means easy, that is difficult, but that can nevertheless be carried out. The first step one can take is to practice a little bit of the usual kind of self-knowledge, the kind that consists in looking back on one's life, so to speak, and asking oneself: What kind of person have I been? Have I been a person with a strong inclination to think, an inwardly contemplative being, or have I been a person who has always loved the sensations of the outside world more, who has liked or disliked this or that in life? Have I been a person who liked to read at school but did not like to do arithmetic, who liked to beat other children but did not like to be beaten? Or was I perhaps a child who was always destined to get beaten up and who wasn't smart enough to let the others get beaten up? — In this way, look back a little on your life and ask yourself in particular: What was I particularly predisposed to — intellectually or in terms of moods or impulses of will? What comes easily to me, what has become difficult? What has affected me so much that I wanted to escape from it? What affected me so much that I said to myself: It is right that it happened this way, and so on — to look back on one's life in this way is good for gaining a more intimate understanding of one's spiritual and emotional core; above all, to clearly present to the soul everything that belongs to what one did not really want. For example, whether one was a son who perhaps would have liked to become a poet, but was destined by his father to become a craftsman and had to become one, even though he never really wanted to; he became one, but would have preferred to become a poet. Make it clear to yourself what you actually wanted to become, but what you became against your will, then make it clear to yourself what suited you in your youth and what you never got. Then go on to make it clear to yourself what you really wanted to get out of, what you really wanted to escape from. I should point out that what I am saying now refers to life in the past, not to the future; that would be a misconception.
So basically, you should figure out what such a look back at the past tells you: what you didn't want, what you wanted to escape, and so on. Once you have made that clear to yourself, you actually have a picture of the things in your life that you like the least. But that is precisely the point: to bring out the things in your life that you liked the least in the past. And now you must try to live yourself completely into a most remarkable idea: To energetically want and desire everything that you did not actually want or desire! So energetically imagine yourself: What would you actually be like if you had vividly desired everything that you did not actually desire, everything that basically went against the grain in your life? — In doing so, you must in a certain way switch off everything that you have managed to overcome. For the most important thing is to desire those things, or to imagine yourself desiring them vividly, which you did not desire, or which you were unable to achieve, so that you create in your mind a being whom you can imagine that you have not really been until now. And now imagine that you have actually been this being with all its vehemence, with all its intensity. If you imagine this, if you succeed in identifying with this being that you have, so to speak, constructed for yourself in this way, then you have already gained something essential on the path to getting to know your inner spiritual core. For it is precisely in the image that you can now form of your own personality in the manner described that something will dawn on you that you are not in your present incarnation, but that you have brought into your present incarnation. Your deeper nature will dawn on you in the image that you construct in this way.
So, basically, someone who wants to get to their inner core is being asked to do something that people today are least likely to do. Our present age is not at all inclined to long for anything even remotely similar to what has just been described, because when people today reflect on themselves, they strive above all to find themselves absolutely right just as they are. If we go back to earlier times of a more religious development, we find the feeling that people should feel contrite because they fall so short of what they can call their divine model. This was not the idea that has been spoken of today, but it was the idea that led away from what people are usually satisfied with and led to something else — even if not to the conviction of another incarnation — namely, to that being that lives on beyond our organization as it develops between birth and death. The following will become clear to you when you draw the opposite image of what you are: this opposite image, however difficult it has become for you to grasp it as your image in this life, still has something to do with you; you cannot deny that. Once you have it, it will haunt you, it will float before your soul and crystallize in such a way that you will say to yourself: This image has something to do with me, but certainly not with my present life. — Then the feeling arises that this image comes from a previous life.
If we keep this in mind, we will soon realize how mistaken most of the ideas are that people usually form about reincarnation and karma. You will have heard it yourself: if you meet someone in life who is, for example, a good mathematician, and if you are also an anthroposophist, then you will easily form the idea: In their previous incarnation, this person was a good mathematician. Unfortunately, many chains of reincarnation are constructed by uneducated anthroposophists in such a way that one simply believes that the previous incarnation can be found by assuming that the abilities that appear in the present incarnation must also have been present in the previous incarnation or possibly in several previous incarnations. This is the worst way to speculate. It usually leads to the wrong conclusion. For real observations using the methods of spiritual science usually show the exact opposite. People who were good at arithmetic or mathematics in their previous incarnation, for example, appear in their present incarnation to have no talent for mathematics whatsoever, to lack mathematical ability. And if you want to know what talents you most likely had in your previous incarnation — I would like to point out that we are now on the ground of probability — if you want to know what abilities you had in this direction in terms of intelligence, artistic things, and so on in your previous incarnation, then you would do well to think about what you are least capable of in this incarnation, what you are least suited to in this incarnation. Once you have figured that out, you will find what you probably excelled at in your previous incarnation, what you were particularly gifted at. I say “probably” because, on the one hand, these things are true, but on the other hand, they are often thwarted by other facts. For example, someone may have had a special talent for mathematics in their previous incarnation but died young, so that this talent was not fully expressed; then they will be born again in their next incarnation with a talent for mathematics, which will then appear as a continuation of the previous incarnation. The mathematician Abel, who died at an early age, will certainly be reborn in his next incarnation with a strong mathematical talent. On the other hand, if a mathematician has lived to a particularly old age, where this talent has been fully developed, the person in question will be downright dull in relation to mathematics in his next incarnation. I know of a person who had so little mathematical talent that he hated numbers as a schoolboy; and while he got good grades in other subjects, it was only possible for him to get through school because he was given particularly good grades in the other subjects. This was because he had been a particularly good mathematician in his previous incarnation.
If we look at this further, we find that what we do outwardly in one incarnation, that is, not only what we do outwardly, but what we do as an outward or inward profession, enters into the inner organ formation in the next incarnation, for example in such a way that if one was a particularly good mathematician in one incarnation, one takes with one what one has acquired in terms of mastery of numbers and figures and works it into a special elaboration of one's sense organs, for example the eyes. And people who see very well have this careful training of the forms of the eye from the fact that they thought in forms in their previous incarnation and took this thinking in forms with them and, as they passed through the time between death and new birth, particularly refined their eyes. The mathematical talent has flowed into the eye and no longer lives out in mathematical talent.
Another case known to occultists is that of an individual who lived particularly intensively in architectural forms in one incarnation: what he felt there lived on as forces in his inner soul life and refined the hearing organ particularly finely, so that this individual became a great musician in his next incarnation. He did not become a great architect because the forms of feeling that were based on architecture became organ-building, so that nothing remained but to feel music to a high degree.
An external observation of similarities usually conceals what are peculiarities in successive incarnations. And just as we must reflect on what we did not like and imagine ourselves intensely desiring it, so too must we reflect on the things we are least capable of, in which we are, so to speak, completely dull-witted. And when we discover the most dull-witted aspects of our nature, they will most likely lead us to what we excelled at most in our previous incarnation. From this we see that it is obvious to start with precisely these things. Incidentally, a little reflection on this can also teach us that it is precisely the innermost core of our soul that survives from one incarnation to the next. This is demonstrated, for example, by the consideration that people never learn languages more easily because they lived in a region where the language they are now learning was spoken in a previous incarnation. otherwise our high school students would not have such a hard time learning Greek or Latin, even though many of them lived in areas where these languages were the common languages in their previous incarnations.
We must say that what we bring to ourselves externally is so closely connected with what is completed in a person's life between birth and death that it is impossible to speak of these things reappearing in the same way in the next incarnation, but rather that they are transformed into forces and pass over into the next incarnation or incarnations. Those people who, for example, have a special aptitude for learning languages in one incarnation will not have this aptitude in their next incarnation; but they will have the aptitude to judge more impartially than other people.
These are things that are connected with the mysteries of reincarnation. And it is precisely when one looks at these mysteries of reincarnation that one gains the most intense insight into what is actually real within human beings and what, in a certain sense, must nevertheless be counted as external. For example, language is no longer internal to modern humans. One can love language for what it expresses, for the sake of the spirit of a people; but it is something that passes from one incarnation to another in transformed forms of energy.
When a person pursues such things that, on the one hand, they say: I want to desire and will very much what I have become against my will and for which I have the least inclination — then they can know: The ideas I gain there will form themselves into the image of my previous incarnation. This image of the previous incarnation will emerge with great certainty if one takes seriously the things that have now been characterized in more detail. One will actually notice that, in the very way in which the ideas thus gained come together, one will feel: This image is actually quite close to me; it is not far from me at all. Or one will feel: It is an image far, far away from me. For when one has painted such an image of one's previous incarnation before one's soul by elaborating the ideas that have been described today, one will usually be able to estimate how faded this image is. You will have the feeling, as if from a sensation: You are standing here; your father, your grandfather, your great-grandfather cannot be the image standing before you. But if you allow the image to sink in, you will indeed feel and sense that there are so many people standing between you and this image! Let us assume that you have this feeling—and it turns out to be true—that there are twelve people standing between you and this image, and someone else has the feeling that there are seven people standing between them and the image. But you do get this feeling, and this feeling is extremely important. For if, for example, twelve people stand between you and this picture, you only need to divide by three and you would get four. These are usually the centuries that separate you from your previous incarnation. So a person who feels that he is twelve people away from the image I have described in terms of its creation, that there are twelve people above him, would have to say to himself: My previous incarnation was four centuries before the present one. — This is only given as an example; it will be the case in very few instances, but it allows one to arrive at an estimate. Most people will find that they can correctly estimate when they were here before. However, the prerequisites for this are, of course, somewhat difficult.
We have now touched upon things that are as far removed from our present consciousness as possible. And there is no doubt whatsoever that if anyone were to tell these things to people who are unprepared for them, they would find them to be truly irresponsible fantasies. Now, it is the fate of the anthroposophical worldview that, of all previous worldviews, it must in a certain way oppose what is traditional. For tradition, in the broadest sense, as it presents itself to us, is the crassest, most barren materialism. And precisely where certain worldviews confront us as if they were most firmly grounded in scientific worldview, they are in fact growing out of the most barren materialistic basic view. Since anthroposophy is now condemned to be, in a certain sense, what is required today for people who want to gain an understanding of their previous incarnations, it is understandable that it must be very difficult for people today to take anthroposophical views seriously. For people will be just as averse to desiring and wanting what they have not desired and wanted all their lives as spiritual truths are foreign to their habits of thinking.
One might now ask the question: Why is spiritual truth coming among people at this particular time? Why does it not give people time to develop until they are more mature.
This stems from the fact that it is difficult to imagine a greater difference between two successive epochs of humanity than there will be between the epoch in which humanity currently lives and the one into which humanity will grow when the people now living are reborn in the next incarnation. For it does not depend on human beings how certain spiritual abilities develop; that depends on the whole meaning and significance and the whole nature of Earth's evolution. Human beings are now furthest removed from believing in reincarnation and karma. Not the anthroposophists — but there are only a few anthroposophists in the world — not those who still belong to old religious forms, but those who are today the bearers of external cultural life, they are today furthest removed from believing in reincarnation and karma. Now, strangely enough, it is precisely this fact — that people today are least inclined to believe in reincarnation and karma — combined with what people are doing and learning today, namely, doing and learning insofar as this has any significance in terms of intellectual abilities — these facts will cause the opposite to happen to these people of the present in their next incarnation. In their next incarnation, these people of the present—regardless of whether they strive spiritually or materialistically—will have a strong predisposition to feel their previous incarnation. No matter what people do today, because they are people of the present, they will be reborn with a strong predisposition and a strong longing to experience something of their previous incarnation, to know something about it. We are currently at such a turning point in time, which is leading people from an incarnation in which they want to know as little as possible about reincarnation and karma to an incarnation in which they will have the most vivid feeling: The whole life I am now leading is up in the air for me if I cannot know anything about my previous incarnation. — And the people who now rail most against reincarnation and karma will writhe in the torment of their next life because they cannot explain how life could have turned out this way. Anthroposophy is not being pursued by people in order to acquire a certain nostalgia for their previous lives, but in order to understand what will happen to the whole of humanity when the people who are alive today return. The people who are anthroposophists today will share with others the predisposition to want to remember again, but they will have understanding and thus inner harmony in relation to their soul life. Those who reject anthroposophy today will want to know about it, and they will feel something like inner torment for something that would be their previous incarnation in the next life; but they will not understand what is weighing most heavily on them and tormenting them; they will be at a loss and will be inwardly disharmonious. And in their next incarnation they will have to be told: You will only learn to recognize what causes you torment when you imagine that you could actually have wanted this torment in earnest. — Of course, no human being will want this torment. But people who are materialists today will then begin in their next incarnation to understand their inner remorse, their inner ode and torment, when they follow the demands, the advice of those who will then be able to know and tell them: Imagine for a moment that you wanted this life that you want to flee. — When they begin to follow this advice, to think about it: How could I have wanted this life? — then they will say to themselves: Oh yes, perhaps I lived in an incarnation in which I said: What, another life or incarnation is to follow this life? Nonsense! Stupidity! How can anyone believe such a thing! This life fulfills itself, is complete in itself; it does not send any forces into a later one! Yes, because I had the feeling at that time that a subsequent life is meaningless, is nonsense, and therefore it has become meaningless and nonsense! I planted the very thought in myself as a force that now makes my life so dreary and empty!
That will be a correct thought. In this way, materialism will, so to speak, live out its karma. The next incarnation will be meaningful for those people who have become convinced that their life as it is now is not only fulfilled in itself, but also contains the causes for the next one. The life of those who have made their own lives dull and meaningless through the thought of the meaninglessness of reincarnation will be meaningless, empty, and dull.
Thus we see that the thoughts we harbor do not pass over into the next life in an intensified form, but appear transformed as forces in the next life. In the spiritual world, thoughts as they are now in life between birth and death have no meaning, but only have meaning in a transformed form. For example, if someone has a great thought, no matter how great that thought may be, when the person passes through the gate of death, the thought as a thought is gone. But the enthusiasm and the sensation and the feeling that has been awakened under the influence of the thought passes through the gate of death. From anthroposophy itself, the human being does not take thoughts with them, but rather what they have experienced in the thoughts—down to the details, not just the general basic sensation. This is what we want to emphasize in particular: that thoughts as such are what is truly meaningful for the physical plane, and that when we speak of the effect of thoughts on the higher worlds, we must at the same time speak of a transformation of these thoughts upward toward the higher worlds. Thoughts that deny reincarnation are transformed in reincarnated life into inner nothingness, into inner emptiness of life, and inner nothingness, inner emptiness of life is experienced as torment, as disharmony. You can even get an idea of how such inner nothingness and emptiness must proceed by comparing it to something you like very much and always enjoy seeing when you come to a certain place. For example, you have become accustomed to seeing a certain flower blooming in a garden in a certain place. If the flower is then cut off by a wicked hand, you will feel pain. When you do not have something you love, when you lack it, you feel pain. It is the same with the overall organization of the human being. How does the human being feel pain? When the etheric body and the astral body of an organ are always connected to a certain part of the physical body, and when this organ is cut and injured, the etheric body and the astral body cannot intervene properly. It is just as if a rose in your garden were cut off at a certain point by a wicked hand. When an organ is injured, the etheric body and the astral body cannot find what they are looking for; this is then felt as physical pain. Thus, the thoughts that a person has formed as continuing into the future will confront him in the future. On the other hand, they will be missing, and he will find nothing where he looks for them in a certain place if he does not send anything over from his faith and powers of knowledge into the next incarnation, and then he will feel this absence of something in a place as pain and torment.
These are statements that will clarify the karmic course of certain things from a certain point of view. They had to be made because we want to look even deeper into the way in which human beings can continue to make events happen in order to recognize their actual spiritual-soul core.